UPSIDE-DOWN GENIUS

Tourists, foreigners and outcasts converge on the streets of Osaka in this sprawling ensemble drama by Japan-based, Malaysia-born filmmaker Lim Kah Wai. His eighth feature explores the lesser-known aspects of the Asian melting pot city through the eyes and experiences of a dozen characters who struggle to find their place in society: among them a Nepali refugee with dreams of opening a restaurant, a Burmese student struggling to make ends meet while working two jobs, and a Taiwanese sex tourist who travels to meet his favorite adult video actress.

In postwar Japan, Godzilla brings new devastation to an already scorched landscape. With no military intervention or government help in sight, the survivors must join together in the face of despair and fight back against an unrelenting horror.

Nitobe and Sakamoto are childhood friends who now work at the front desk of a capsule hotel. Nitobe has a particular fondness for philosophy and crustaceans. Sakamoto, meanwhile, is fixated on suicide. The capsule hotel draws a variety of guests, including a Finnish mother who has lost her child, a fugitive woman, and a researcher studying Daphnia. None of their lives ever intersect. They exist, but never cross, like cells in a capsule hotel. The themes of life and death are explored through a fragmentary view of the characters’ lives.

One by one, everyone falls asleep forever.

Suzuki Rara is left behind in the countryside due to mischief. She becomes a YouTuber, goes both crazy and offbeat. Wearing an eye-patch, loose track pants and often holding a sledgehammer she begins interacting with the locals, families and visitors.

Mitsue returns to Japan after the disillusionment of a work opportunity in Singapore. Resuming her past life, she treads between friendships with a former lover and a new co-worker, while finding her footing despite being constantly on the move. A sense of alienation follows her from city to city as the young urbanite looks for novelty and adventure, but struggles to find a place to call home. Through beautiful vignettes of Mitsue’s encounters with familiar faces as well as strangers, this gentle drama invites us to dwell on the stops one makes in a journey of self-discovery.